Expanded Walmart celebrates grand opening

Edwin Cruz, meat department manager at the Exeter Walmart store, was in Pottstown helping with the grand reopening of the Walmart store Wednesday in Pottstown Center. Cruz was stocking turkeys for the upcoming holidays. (Photo by John Strickler/The Mercury)

The construction project to expand the well-worn Pottstown store by 55,000 square feet began in December 2011. For months the parking lot was torn up and the building was a constantly-changing maze of merchandise. The now-larger 187,000-square-footstore at 233 Shoemaker Road is home to a new grocery area, and an expanded garden center and electronics departments, among other upgrades. Leased areas inside the store include a SmartStyle hair salon and Subway restaurant

“We are proud to be expanding during the year that Walmart celebrates the 50th anniversary of its first store opening,” said store manager Richard Alphonso in a prepared statement. “We look forward to serving the people of our community, helping save them money so they can live better.”

The store expansion, designed to give customers a one-stop shopping option for groceries and merchandise, added 50 new jobs to the store’s 200, bringing the total number of store associates to 250, according to Alphonso. Full-time jobs at Walmart stores in Pennsylvania pay on average $12.45 per hour, he said.

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Separate front entrances were created for the store and the market. Additionally, the parking lot was redesigned with a different entrance structure, enhanced landscaping and “islands” including plantings, additional parking bollards and a reconfigured handicapped parking area. The expanded store is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Many of the customers shopping on Wednesday seemed especially excited about the store’s new grocery area, whichfeatures fresh produce, including a variety of organic products, a full bakery, meat and dairy products, dry goods and staples, beverages, a deli, frozen foods, canned and packaged goods, baking items and household supplies.

“It’s nice and clean and the prices are comparable to Wegmans,” said Joan Hamer of Douglassville, who was adding grocery items to her shopping cart Wednesday afternoon. “They really have a nice variety, and everyone has been very friendly. I’m happy that this is here.”

B. Shanely purchased a couple of bags full of merchandise at the store Wednesday. Stopped by a Mercury staffer on her way to her car in the newly re-done parking lot, she said it was the first time she had visited the store since the expansion project began.

“I thought it was really much nicer. The bathrooms were nice, too. I’m impressed. I’ll be back,” she said.

According to a press release for Walmart, the remodeled Pottstown store features many energy-saving elements, “part of Walmart’s overall efforts to reduce the total amount of energy used in stores and other operations. These features include LED lights in signage, freezer cases and the parking lot. This technology uses about 50 percent less energy than traditional lighting.”

Other changes include the addition of Walmart.com services to the store’s entrance. Now available is Site-to-Store, a free service that allows customers to ship online orders free to any Walmart store for pickup; and Pick Up Today, another free service that allows customers to order store items online and pick them up at thestore that same day (or the next day if items are ordered after 6 p.m.).

As part of the reopening and ribbon-cutting ceremonies, which were held at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation provided $1,000 grants to each of the following: Norco Fire Company; Pottstown Regional Public Library; and Pottstown Senior High School.